The prior art includes many examples of devices for scanning an original to produce video signals, quantizing the video signals for a selected area of the original corresponding to a stored dot pattern and then storing those quantized signals for later reproduction. Such examples of the prior art are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,080,634 of Schreiber and 4,122,496 of Childress et al. Additionally, the quantized signals indicative of the selected areas are used to select a dot pattern, for reimaging, according to the distribution of the information in a particular area of the original. Such an example is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,150,400 of Wong. Additional examples for combining the various quantized signals produced over a dot pattern are as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,536 to Roetling and U.S. Pat. No. 3,806,641 to Crooks where dot pattern character words are stored for reproduction of the original.
The prior art shows means for comparing a stored dot pattern with an area on an original represented by the video signals for picture elements (pixels) within that area, and then using that information either directly or by combination, to reproduce the image, either through its original quantized values or by encoding to select a substantially similar halftone pattern character word from a memory. However, the prior art does not show a method of encoding the quantized signals into a signal such as a binary word capable of separately identifying the modulation of the information distribution across a dot pattern. It further does now show the use of such a binary word to select a dot pattern having a modulated information distribution imitating the scanned and quantized digital values for a corresponding pattern area on the original.